High above the town of Phaplu, in the Solukhumbu district beneath the shadow of Everest, sits something that didn’t exist anywhere in Nepal before: a trail network built from the ground up for mountain biking. Ratnange Trail Center is Nepal’s first dedicated trail center, and it’s changing what an adventure trip to the Everest region can look like.
From a Pump Track to a Trail Center
Ratnange’s story starts small. In 2020, during Nepal’s lockdown, a pump track was built on family land in Phaplu — a modest project meant to give local kids something to do. That grassroots effort grew into the Phaplu Mountain Bike Club, a community initiative co-founded by hospitality professional Ang Tshering Lama and former professional cyclist Tangi Rebours, built around training local riders and creating opportunities for local youth through sport.
What began as a pump track has since grown into a full trail network spread across the community-managed Ratnange Forest — over 70 kilometres of purpose-built singletrack, with more than a dozen dedicated trails ranging from flowing, beginner-friendly tracks to genuinely technical downhill runs. It’s a working example of trail development done in partnership with the local community, funded in part through a trail sponsorship model that supports both conservation and ongoing trail upkeep.
What Makes the Riding Special
Ratnange sits at elevation — trails start above 3,200 metres, with some routes dropping more than 2,500 metres in a single run down to around 1,500 metres. That range means a single day of riding can take you from open, high-altitude ridgelines with Everest visible on a clear day, down through dense pine and rhododendron forest, and into the buffalo-and-yak-grazed pastures around Phaplu itself.
Riders and guides who’ve ridden the trails consistently point to one thing: the loam. The forest soil here holds a natural, tacky singletrack surface that’s rare to find anywhere, let alone at this altitude — the kind of trail condition riders usually travel much further, and pay much more, to find.
The trail center is also home to Enduro Ratnange, an annual race that has quickly become a fixture on Nepal’s young mountain biking calendar, drawing racers from Nepal and abroad to test themselves on stages that combine technical singletrack with serious vertical drop, all against a Himalayan backdrop.
More Than a Trail Network
Ratnange isn’t just infrastructure — it’s a community project. The same club behind the trails runs youth mentorship programs, an arts and wellbeing space for the local community, and initiatives aimed at giving Sherpa families in Solukhumbu new, year-round income opportunities beyond the traditional trekking season. Where trekkers might pass through Phaplu for a single night, mountain bikers tend to stay several days — riding, resting, and spending locally in a way that spreads tourism income more widely through the community.
For accommodation, Kyirmu Lodge in Phaplu is a natural base: a hilltop lodge with sweeping mountain views, warm Sherpa hospitality, and easy access to the trailhead.
A New Chapter for Nepali Mountain Biking
Nepal has always had the terrain for world-class mountain biking — what it lacked was infrastructure built specifically for the sport. Ratnange Trail Center is that missing piece: a place where the trail isn’t a repurposed trekking path, but was designed, built, and maintained for riders from the start. For anyone chasing genuine Himalayan singletrack, this is where Nepal’s mountain biking story is being written right now.
